It's another day, another milestone for Apple's App Store.
More than 100,000 applications are now available for the Apple iPhone in 77 countries through the company's wildly popular App Store, according to Apple. To date, more than 2 billion applications have been downloaded since the App Store opened last year, the company said.
"The App Store, now with over 100,000 applications available, is clearly a major differentiator for millions of iPhone and iPod Touch customers around the world," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, in a statement. "The iPhone SDK created the first great platform for mobile applications and our customers are loving all of the amazing apps our developers are creating."
The number of applications has increased dramatically since the release last summer of iPhone OS 3.0, which made more than 100 new features available to iPhone and iPod Touch users including cut, copy and paste; MMS; landscape view for mail, text and notes; stereo Bluetooth; shake to shuffle; parental controls; automatic login at Wi-Fi hot spots; and push notifications, according to Apple.
For example, more than 2 billion push notifications have already been sent to apps downloaded from the App Store. When the App Store launched in 2008, there were about 500 applications available to users.
"The App Store has forever changed the mobile gaming industry and continues to improve," said Travis Boatman, vice president of Worldwide Studios, EA Mobile, a division of Electronic Arts, in a statement.
Borrowing a page from many bookstores, Apple's Web site lets users browse among "Staff Picks" for apps, including this week's Zipcar App, which lets users reserve a car from Zipcar Inc. at the touch of a few buttons.
Jeff Smith, CEO of Smule, said App Store users download his "I Am T-Pain" app more than 10,000 times each day, surpassing expectations. "The App Store has given us a unique opportunity to create and grow a very successful business, and we're looking forward to an exciting future," Smith said in a statement.
